Those numbers add up to trouble, particularly when you consider, as Express-News reporter Benjamin Olivo did early this year, that as recently as 12 years ago, a whopping 63 percent of new homes in this market fell into the $150,000-and-under range.

With the gap between personal income and home costs getting stretched to the breaking point, Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert has offered an ambitious city/county partnership plan. Calvert recommends that the city of San Antonio devote $100 million of its 2017 bond program to what he calls a Neighborhood Revitalization Fund, with the idea that the county would kick in an additional $100 million of its own.

“Here’s the rationale: Bexar County and the city of San Antonio is going to have somewhere between one million and 1.5 million people move here in the next 25 years,” Calvert said. “Every time we have to build a new street on the periphery or a fire station or a sheriff’s substation, that’s a permanent liability on our books that we have to pay for forever. So the fiscally conservative thing for us to do is to invest and revitalize the housing where we have streets, where we have fire stations, etc.”

Calvert’s proposed fund would enable local residents with homes at least 30 years old to apply for grants to rehab those homes, and would also offer funds for developers who commit to building affordable new housing. In addition, it would aim to combat gentrification by selecting particular neighborhoods for special taxing districts, with property taxes frozen for a period of five years.

Mayor Ivy Taylor told me last week that she supports the concept of municipal investment in housing. She did, however, express concern about the scale of Calvert’s proposal, saying that caution will be necessary if the city expects to win voter approval for the bond program.

“I think certainly that sounds very aggressive,” Taylor said about the $100-million city price tag. “But I am relieved that we are finally having this conversation because dating back to 2011, when we were coming up on the 2012 bond, I had been talking with some folks in the housing community to try and see if we could get some support for some sort of investment in housing.”

District 4 Councilman Rey Saldaña said he has spoken with Taylor about the proposal and “would love to be the quarterback on the city side to collaborate with the county on this.”

Saldaña said over his four years on the council, he has seen an evolution in the community’s thinking on housing, a realization that investment in our housing stock “goes hand in glove” with spending on parks and libraries.

S.A. Feels the Bern

While Hillary Clinton is the overwhelming favorite to claim the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, most of the grassroots energy and enthusiasm in the party is centered around Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

If nothing else, the 73-year-old populist has exposed a fissure in the party, between ardent progressives — who want a single-payer health-care system and fear the effects of the Trans-Pacific Partnership on American workers — and establishment figures, such as Clinton, who court big business and prefer to nibble around the edges when it comes to addressing income inequality or the skyrocketing costs of a college education.

Sunday afternoon, nearly 100 Sanders devotees met at the Alta Vista home of Bob Comeaux, a longtime Democratic activist, to make sure that San Antonio starts to feel the Bern.

The organizer of the event was Rick Treviño, a deputy precinct chair for the Bexar County Democratic Party. He said the idea of the gathering was to ensure that “when Bernie does come in the state for the primary fight, at least he has a little Bernie Army ready to organize for him.”

Treviño said Sunday’s meeting resulted in seven attendees committing to host future house parties for Sanders.

“Speaking as a millennial, I think this is one of the first candidates in a long time to really offer something tangible to thirtysomethings and college students,” Treviño said. “For me, it’s going to be a real focus to bring those people back into the fold.”